Birdwood Van Someren Taylor: Difference between revisions

Birdwood Van Someren Taylor (1852- 31 July 1939^[1]) was an English physician, teacher, and clergyman. He was only the second CMS medical missionary to go to China in 1878 serving for over 45 years, working primarily in China during the height of the Opium War, with a focus on Fuzhou (Fuh-Chow), Fukien, and Hinghwa. Noted for his work addressing opium addiction and leprosy, Taylor founded many mission hospitals in Fukien including the largest in Hingwa(1894). He incorporated medical education into the hosptials and translated English medical textbooks into the local dialects. He also served as the founding Principal of Union Medical College in Western China(1911-1918). Union Medical College brought together three missionary societies from the British CMS and the American Methodist Episcopalians and the Congregationalists^[2] Finally, Taylor was known for bringing English lawn tennis to the Fukien area.^[3]

Birdwood Van Someren Taylor was born 1852^[4] in Borsad, India^[5]. His parents, Rev. Joseph Someren Taylor (1820-1881) and Eliza Sarah Pritchard Taylor (1827-1858)^[6] were Christian missionaries and worked primarily in Gujarat, India. They served as missionaries until Eliza fell sick, causing them to move back to Scotland with their children. Eliza Sarah Pritchard Taylor died June 26, 1858^[7] when Birdwood Van Someren Taylor was 6 years old. He grew up primarily in Scotland with a Protestantant upbringing.

Later, he attended the University of Edinburgh where he received his M. B and C.M,^[8] becoming both a medical doctor and an ordained member of the clergy.

On August 1, 1878, Taylor married Christiana Downing (Taylor) in Viewforth, Midlothian, Scotland. They were married by his grandfather, Rev. George Pritchard.^[9]

Taylor and Downing had 3 children: Edith Mary Taylor (1888-1924), Christina Moore Taylor (1889-) and Birdwood Van Someren Taylor Jr. (1890-1964)^[1].

Shortly after his marriage to Downing, Taylor left for Fuh-Chow, China and arrived on November 30, 1878^[10] to work as the second medical missionary for the Church Missionary Society in China. He followed the first CMS medical missionary to China William Welton who helped the Chinese Medical Society establish the first dispensary hospital in Fuh-Chow in 1850. He opened the first hospital in Funing in 1883.^[3]

John Wolfe assigned Taylor to develop more hospitals and dispensaries in Fukien after the destruction of the Black Stone Hill mission by anti-religious actors. The beleif was that the community would respond better to medical missionarieis than religious missionaries. ^[3]

Taylor established his reputation as a medical provider, separate from a religious missionary and traditional medicine provider, through the curing of opium addiction of a senior medical officer. Upon his cure, the officer held a public ceremony and hung an official military banner outside the Funing Hospital declaring the ability of the foregin Taylor to provide cures.^[3]

Taylor oversaw the CMS mission in Fuh-Chow and trained medical catechists who would assist him in the proceedings of the hospital. Taylor successfully pressed the mission leadership to start a physician training program to increase the clinical services. With these newly trained assistants, Taylor continued and expanded the legacy of the CMS.^[2][3] Taylor built classrooms for clinical education into the hospital at Funing. Taylor translated medical textbooks into the local language.^[3]

Taylor and his team primarily treated opium addicts and leprosy, growing substantially as the years progressed. It was estimated that up to 2/3 of patients were addicted to Opium and seeking treatment for this.^[3]

Through Taylor's work, China had the largest number of dispensary hospitals serving the area by the 1880'a. They were primarily run by CMS missionaries and volunteers.^[11]

Having worked on itinerant missions, Taylor worked in both Fuh-Chow and Fuh-Ning, serving Fuh-Chow from 1878 to 1882^[10]. In 1882^[10], Taylor started working primarily in the prefectures of Fuh-ning and led the medical mission established in the area with the Chinese men he had trained. He also assisted Dr. Rigg, a medical missionary who had similar duties in Kieng-ning, a nearby town in Fuh-kien^[12].

In 1894, Taylor transferred to Hinghwa^[10]. Once at Hinghwa, he opened up the largest hospital in Fukien with a dispensary.^[13]. In 1929, The China Medical Journal covered the Hinghwa hospital, highlighting that there were eight separate departments and had at least 260 beds^[14].

In 1911, Taylor was called back to Fuh-Chow. Due to his experience teaching medicine for several decades, he was appointed as the Founding Principal of Union Medical College when it opened in 1911^[2]. Union Medical College was a collaboration between Americans (Congregationalists), Anglicists and Methodist Episcopalians. Bringing three missionary societies together was part of a cultural shift in medical education in China starting in 1901 prior to the Chinese Civil War.^[15] Taylor served as the principal until 1918.

During his time in China, Taylor published several articles and letters of importance. He penned a brochure (also referred to as a pamphlet) from his experience teaching medicine.

• “The Training of Chinese Students in Medicine and Surgery by Medical Missionaries, in its Missionary Aspect” which was published by the Chinese Medical Association Publishing House. *“The Massacre of Missionaries” which appeared in The Times (London) on August 8, 1895.
• "Medical Mission Work During the Plague at Hing-hwa", Mercy and TruthFeb 1897, pp 42-43.
• "The Year's Work at Hing-hwa", Mercy and Truth, Sept 1897, pp. 203-207.
• China Mission: Original Papers: Letters and Papers of Missionaries: Birdwood Van Someren Taylor, 1878-1880. United Kingdom: Adam Matthew Digital, 2018.

Taylor opened Hinghwa hospital in 1894 and trained Chinese men to be doctors and surgeons. By 1929, Hinghwa was nearly completely managed by a Chinese staff. The lead doctor, Dr. M.K. Yue, worked with four other Chinese doctors, and had a staff of three foreign nurses and four graduate Chinese nurses. The hospital had 2,987 inpatients at one time and had totaled 16,598 outpatients and treatments in 1929 alone^[14].

On 24 February in 1929, Taylor returned to England to retire at The Vale in Golders Green, Middlesex, England. He died on July 31, 1939.^[16]